


Proof Positive

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Series: Dread: the Lost Year [3]
Category: Sagas of Sundry, Sagas of Sundry: Dread
Genre: Blow Jobs, Glory Hole, M/M, Oral Sex, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 12:18:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11828610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: Tanner's in need of some conclusive evidence about the video store, in light of what he's been calling in his head "the button incident".





	Proof Positive

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-Sagas, post-ITTD, during what I imagine would constitute the literal worst gap year ever.
> 
> Sagas of Sundry: Dread characters belong to their respective creators and are used here without thought of financial gain.
> 
> Thanks to Arkham for the quick turnaround on the beta.
> 
> For the Discordian Dreadnauts.
> 
> * * *

Tanner skips going to the video store for two weeks after the night when—the night when it’s not Kayden. It’s pretty fuckin’ stupid when he thinks about it; the first time he went in there he was with a stranger, as far as he knew, and only the part where it turned into a kind of habit made him realize he was probably getting sucked off by the same guy every time. So it shouldn’t have been weird the weekend after Thanksgiving when it wasn’t, when he was too frustrated and distracted from the shit his clients had put him through to notice right away that the mouth closed around his cock wasn’t the same as usual. He should’ve been able to get off and go home and been fine.

But it’s been weird since he saw the button stitched to Kayden’s shirt, nestled among the array of buttons and pins. Hell, it’s been weird since before then, when he offered the damn button in the first place, or any of the times he held his fingers through the hole with a five or ten pinched between them and waited the extra second to feel the soft press of lips there before leaving.

Now, though, now he either has to go back and find out or take his chances with Kayden being around town for Christmas. If Kayden came home for Thanksgiving, he might show up again for Christmas, and Tanner doesn’t want to spend the entirety of the long span of days until Kayden presumably resumes school sitting as close to the trailer park as he dares, not sure what he’s hoping for, just that it’s  _ something _ .

His mom already told him off for lurking around town over the Thanksgiving weekend instead of spending time with family, anyway, and Tanner can’t exactly tell her  _ hey, mom, chill out, I was just waiting to see if the guy I’m 99% sure I’ve been paying for blowjobs for a couple months now is still in town or not _ .

The photo came out clear enough, but a button’s a button: it could’ve been on Kayden’s jacket the entire time he’s owned it.

Except Tanner’s spent enough time in his life looking at Kayden and photos of Kayden to know it wasn’t there before.

It does, however, give him an idea for how to obtain conclusive proof.

* * *

Tanner’s no longer ashamed when he walks into the store with its glowing sign reading  _ Adult Entertainment _ in the window. Not about going in there, or about his ultimate destination, or about what illegal acts go on back there.

He feels ashamed that he’s got a Kodak box brownie stashed in an inner jacket pocket. Not even because of what he wants to use it for, just because it isn’t a  _ real _ camera. It’s not his beloved Canon; it’s practically a toy.

But he won’t have to leave it at the counter to pick up on his way back out, and that’s what matters.

He gives Jude a smile as he buys his tokens, because he’s been in enough to be polite, and she grins back and says, “Hey, handsome,” shooting him a quick wink.

That’s definitely encouraging.

A few of the video booths are occupied; it’s earlier in the night than he usually manages to make it in, but fortunately today’s job was taking pictures of moodily lit vases to put in the window of an antiques store, so the night is young.

He still hesitates outside the end booth, although there’s a green light on over the door to signal its availability. His heart has started racing; what if Kayden realizes what he’s up to, freaks out, and chases him down? Not only will it fuck everything up here, if word gets out he’s never going to get another freelance assignment. Not unless it’s for a men’s magazine or something.

_ Stop being so paranoid, dumbass. _

Tanner does still have a couple of cards up his sleeve though, things he’s been contemplating for some time. What he needs is something to put Kayden off balance. A distraction. He’s already jerked off twice today, trying to ensure his own lack of distraction, but his cock is half-hard in his pants anyway and he’s just hoping it’ll behave itself and not impede his intentions.

His heart is still racing when he steps into the booth, but now out of arousal, not fear.

* * *

There’s been a change since his last visit; there’s now the results of a VD test pinned to the wood beside the hole. The patient’s name is blacked out, but the results are clean. Tanner files the knowledge away in the back of his mind before going to his knees in front of the hole. Usually he remains standing even to push his tokens through, but not tonight. Tonight is different.

He pushes the tokens through—one, two, into Kayden’s palm—and follows them immediately with a twenty that he’s stuck a Post-it on with MERRY XMAS printed on it in what hopefully doesn’t look too much like his writing. But instead of pulling his hand back and waiting for the sign that he can put his cock through, he beckons, curling his fingers back toward himself invitingly.

“Are you  _ serious _ ?”

It sure as shit  _ sounds _ like Kayden.

Tanner beckons again, then turns his wrist to drum his fingertips impatiently against the wood when there’s another moment’s pause. Then he pulls his hand back, to give Kayden room.

Is this how Kayden feels, waiting? Having given the signal to proceed, listening for the small sounds: the belt buckle opening, the whirr of the zip, the rip of the condom packet?

Tanner hears each of these things, despite the sounds coming from down the hallway, as though there is nothing but air between the two of them.

There’s the creak of wood as Kayden puts his hand against the wall, and then movement at the hole, and Tanner hasn’t really thought this all the way through because every time he  _ has _ thought about it he’s found himself too horny to focus, but now—

Now he has Kayden’s cock right there on offer and it’s a big incentive to get his shit together and pay attention.

Tanner hasn’t spent a whole lot of time on comparing dick sizes, either with other guys or his own against porn or whatever. Kayden looks—he looks—well—

Tanner doesn’t actually spend a whole lot of time looking at Kayden, because he’s got plenty of other options when it comes to  _ looking _ , for God’s sake, he’s even got that Mapplethorpe book (and hey, maybe if this  _ does _ go to shit he can be the next Mapplethorpe).

He doesn’t quite dive right in tongue first and mouth open, but it’s a close thing. The two things holding him back are his own inexperience and the fact that when he closes his fingers around Kayden’s shaft and squeezes him, Kayden makes the most interesting noise yet: a shaky gasp as he pushes into Tanner’s hand, as though he was expecting Tanner to leave him hanging after all.

As with many things, starting with a simple kiss seems like the best place, and so he presses his lips to Kayden’s latex-covered tip. He’s got his eyes mostly closed to concentrate on what he’s feeling, but he can see enough to land on that target: rounded and thick, flushed dark, and apparently the sole focus of Kayden’s attention as well given the soft moan from the other side of the wall.

Tanner’s tongue comes out to explore, running around the crown of Kayden’s cock. He’s unimpressed by the latex taste, but that’s really a non-issue considering that with every tentative lick and kiss he offers Kayden twitches against his mouth. He can see that there’s already fluid beading in the tip of the condom, and flattens his tongue against it to lick long and slow, as though he can taste Kayden right through the fine shield if he tries hard enough.

Then he lets his eyelids fall all the way closed and takes Kayden’s cockhead into his mouth.

“Ah,  _ fuck _ ...” It feels like Kayden smacks the partition as well as letting out that moan.

There’s no way Kayden hasn’t been on the receiving end of a blowjob before, it just stands to reason, so there must be a different reason for the strength of his reaction, especially considering Tanner hasn’t really done a whole lot of anything yet.

The first thing he wants to do is see just how much physical effort he’s going to have to put in, and the best scientific method for forming a hypothesis around that is to lean in and take Kayden as deep as he has to before his lips make contact with his own lean fingers fisted around Kayden’s length.

Kayden’s cock is a heavy solid weight on his tongue, pressing it down to the bottom of his mouth as Tanner takes him in, until he has to stop and swallow a little to keep from drooling. His tongue arches up when he does so, squeezing Kayden’s cock against the roof of his mouth, and Kayden whines.

“Good... doing good...”

Tanner would say something sarcastic but he’s pretty sure Kayden’s being sincere, and also he was brought up not to talk with his mouth full.

He pulls back until his lips are just grazing Kayden’s tip again and opens his eyes. What he can see of Kayden’s length before it disappears first into his own fist and then beyond the wall—not that there’s much space between hand and wall; they’re both pressed right up close against the thin wood—is gleaming with saliva.

He gives Kayden a light squeeze and watches how Kayden’s cock twitches in response before getting his mouth involved again, tongue lapping over Kayden’s head and shaft until Kayden makes a protesting whimper.

Taking Kayden in again by slow degrees this time, keeping his tongue down, Tanner loosens his hold a little to see if Kayden will try to push further into his mouth of his own volition. And indeed there’s the tiniest thrust from Kayden’s end before he stops to hold shakingly still and let Tanner take the lead.

Mouth involvement aside, jerking someone else’s dick from this angle is something he has to figure out in terms of angles and pacing. He knows what he likes, and sets out with slow movements to establish what works for Kayden. Judging from the low gasping sounds from the other side of the wall, what works for Kayden is having Tanner’s mouth and hand on him in basically any combination.

Tanner finds a rhythm: mouth taking Kayden in until his lips brush his own fingers, hand moving to meet his mouth, then doing his best to suck hard as he shifts back and gives Kayden a gentle jerk with each long pull of his mouth. Kayden’s hand brushes his as Kayden starts playing with his own balls, letting out dirty little whimpers; Tanner suspects Kayden’s doing a little more than that, maybe pressing one blue-nailed finger inside himself.

“You can—can you go harder?”

The way Kayden turns it from a statement into a request makes Tanner more than happy to acquiesce. His jaw hurts a little but he quickens his pace with his hand, squeezing Kayden tighter and working at sucking him harder and deeper.

“Ah, yeah, ah,  _ fuck _ —” Kayden loses his words and goes back to gasping and groaning. His thighs begin to smack against the thin partition as he starts fucking into the circle of Tanner’s fingers.

It’s probably taken Kayden quite a bit of practice to swallow down the entire length of a man’s cock (and rather than jealousy, the mental image of Kayden on his knees,  _ learning _ , has Tanner’s own cock twitching in his pants), so Tanner’s not going to attempt that—he doesn’t want to ruin this by barfing everywhere. He does, however, try just a little harder to take more of Kayden in. He’s girthy, heavy in Tanner’s mouth, and when Tanner swallows and shifts his tongue, Kayden lets out a hoarse yelp.

Tanner can hear a wet soft sound from Kayden’s side of the booth and if Kayden wasn’t fingering himself before, he for sure is now; that or he’s decided to start sucking on a Popsicle to fulfil his need to have something in his mouth.

Either way it’s darkly exciting and he wishes he could see Kayden doing it.

Even before he picked up his first camera, Tanner’s always been a visual person. He likes being able to see events as they unfold, to document them with pictures in his memory if not physical photographs. To his own surprise, his eyes keep closing during this, focusing on the feeling of Kayden’s cock sliding in and out of his mouth. 

Thinking of it in literally those words brings the reality of the situation crashing in on him and Tanner lets out a muffled moan. Kayden echoes it with fervor, and Tanner realizes there’s a way he can make this visual and  _ keep _ it visual. He risks screwing up his original plan if he does so, but he’s at the point of not giving a shit anyway.

He fishes the small Kodak out of his jacket pocket, holds it up beside his head, and snaps two quick pictures: one where he’s got Kayden in as deep as he can, and one where Kayden’s hard length is clearly visible pushing between his lips. He manipulates the winder with his thumb before setting the camera on the floor, and manages to keep the rhythm of his other hand going.

Sure, now he’s going to be doubly exposed if anyone else happens to see the pictures, but again: not giving a shit.

And now he has his visuals for later perusal (assuming they come out, which they will, because he’s good at what he does, damn it), he can focus on what he really came to do.

Judging from Kayden’s ongoing movements, he hasn’t noticed the light of the flash or the sound of the film winding on. Judging from Kayden’s ongoing movements, in fact, he’s on the verge of coming.

Tanner withdraws entirely for one moment, just one, to rub the length of Kayden’s cock against his cheek, remembering the dark thrill of Kayden doing the same to him the first time and how  _ real _ it had made the whole thing, the awareness that there was a face and a person attached to the mouth and hands.

He’s about to suck Kayden back in when he feels Kayden’s cock pulse against his cheek.

Each sound that Kayden has made over the course of the night has been fascinating, from words to whimpering. 

The one he makes now is the most fascinating though, because it distinctively sounds like it starts with a "T—" before turning into a noise bereft of consonants or comprehensibility.

Instead of taking Kayden back into his mouth, Tanner just runs his tongue the length of Kayden’s cock and watches the tip of the condom fill with spurts of fluid that looks pearlescent in the low light. He can feel each jerk and twitch, not only with his fingers still wrapped around Kayden, but as though he’s the one coming.

Tanner presses a final, rather wet kiss to Kayden’s cockhead and Kayden withdraws. His shaking fingers poke through the hole, something shiny tweezed between them, and Tanner takes the oversized safety pin, slipping it into his jacket pocket.

Tanner stands back up, hearing his knees pop, grateful his legs haven’t fallen asleep. He picks the little camera back up, aims the lens at the hole, and presses the button before he can stop to think twice. There’s a sharp gasp from the other side of the partition as the flash goes off, and Tanner shoves the door open, pushing the camera back into his pocket as he moves, scampering down the hallway, all the way expecting to hear Kayden shouting behind him.

But all he hears is the ongoing chorus of moans from the ever-playing blue movies.

He slows down on his way through the curtain, tips Jude a wink on his way past the counter, and manages to keep his pace to a casual amble until he’s out of the store. Then he bolts for his car, cradling the camera against his chest, this piece of cheap inferior plastic suddenly his most prized piece of photographic equipment.

* * *

Tanner stays in the city that night but rises at dawn to begin the drive home, after a restless night spent wondering whether he’ll come out of the cheap hostel dorm only to find that Kayden’s tracked him down and brought Charlie along to explain up close why nobody, but  _ nobody _ , gets to take photos in the arcade.

He heads home, going ten miles over the speed limit most of the way and, although the sun touches the desert with golden fingers that illuminate scrub and sand like something out of a Renaissance painting, he doesn’t lift his eyes from the road save to glance occasionally at the small black camera resting on the passenger seat.

The pin is fastened to the collar of his shirt.

* * *

Maybe the greatest proof that it really  _ has _ been Kayden on the other side of the wall all along, except for that one time, is that Tanner’s still got the film to develop. He can’t imagine any of the other video store staff—nice as they all seem—letting him get away with it.

He still has to  _ know _ .

Tanner holds the negative up to the dim red light.

Even tiny and reversed and monochrome, he can recognize Kayden.

His hands shake the whole time he’s processing the print, unconsciously thanking the God he doesn’t believe in that his parents  _ do _ believe and are currently at church. They respect the privacy of his tiny home darkroom, but under the circumstances he thinks he’s justifiably paranoid.

He glances at the first two negatives as well; they’re not fantastic images but they’ll be interesting to develop once he’s finished up with the first one.

When the print is done and drying, Tanner very carefully washes his hands three times. He wears gloves while handling the developing chemicals, but there are some things he just doesn’t want to have to explain to his parents. For the same reason, he kicks the wooden wedge into place under the door before taking a seat in the folding chair that usually leans untouched in the corner.

Kayden is looking straight at the camera. His eyes look darkly shadowed but Tanner’s not sure if that’s exhaustion or makeup. His hair is spiked taller than Tanner remembers, the sides a little fuzzy, as though he hasn’t shaved them in a couple of days. His lips are wet and inviting, parted as he draws in a deep breath. He’s got one hand out toward the hole, withdrawing it from offering the pin; the other hand is around his semi-hard cock, keeping the condom in place til he’s soft enough to remove it without making a mess

There’s an expression in his eyes that Tanner keeps coming back to and finally puts a name to: hunger. 

Even after getting what Tanner gave him, he’s still hungry to  _ give _ .

Tanner closes his eyes, the image of Kayden’s face hanging behind his eyelids, all the better to imagine the wall coming down between them, being able to touch Kayden’s head and hair, to see Kayden’s eyes looking up at him before the two of them get down to business. 

Except of course without the wall, it will no longer be just business.

It’s so easy to imagine—no,  _ remember _ —the feeling of Kayden’s mouth on him. Odd to be extrapolating the sensations of a blowjob back to what it might feel like kissing him. It should be the other way around, as though they’ve done this in the wrong order. Of course there’s no guarantee that he’s ever going to kiss Kayden. For that matter there’s no guarantee that he’s ever going to go back. It was one thing to be able to kid himself that maybe Kayden thought he hadn’t noticed the button; another thing entirely to be able to make any sort of pretence that he doesn’t know for sure now.

If all he winds up with are pictures and memories, maybe that’ll be enough.

Tanner has his pants open and cock out before long, trying to go through the memories in order. 

The first time. Standing, pacing outside the store, trying to get up the nerve to go in. Only somewhat familiar with what might be on offer, thanks to the word that gets around about such stores. Seeing the tame offerings, then the explicit video covers, and then feeling drawn to the curtain at the back of the store. Paying his money. The almost unconscious decision to follow the row of booths to its very end, instead of picking one at random and watching whatever was playing. The experience of slow teasing and hot ravaging, all tempered with the thrill of the forbidden.

Layering the fresh truth that it was  _ Kayden _ doing that to him over the top of the memory is like putting some kind of filter over a monochrome photograph to alter it into vivid color.

It’s all pretty well etched into his mind and he’s gotten off to just that memory before, but he’s trying to hold back, to work through the subsequent times before allowing himself release. To recall each experience and remove the anonymity of the person behind the wall.

Tanner only gets as far as the second time he went in, knowing from the feeling of the other person’s

(Kayden’s)

hands on him, the soft heat of the other person’s

( _ Kayden’s _ )

lips and tongue inviting his cock into the other person’s

(Kayden’s, Kayden, it was  _ Kayden _ )

mouth that it was the same person as the first time—

—and then his eyes open, gaze meeting the hungry intense look in photo-Kayden’s eyes, and Tanner’s just  _ gone _ .

**Author's Note:**

>  _That sounds like a confession to me. In fact, the double negative has led to proof positive; I'm afraid you gave yourself away._  
>  – Wadsworth, _Clue_ (1985)


End file.
